Kristen Smith 
Don Parente, vice president of public sector sales and solution architecture at MetTel, has highlighted a persistent but often overlooked source of federal inefficiency: utility and energy management.
In a recent commentary published Monday on Government Technology Insider, Parente argued that agencies continue to rely on fragmented, manual processes to manage utility expenses, treating them as routine administrative tasks. This approach, he said, creates unnecessary waste, limits visibility and diverts resources from mission-critical priorities.
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Federal agencies may oversee thousands of utility accounts across hundreds of vendors, resulting in decentralized systems prone to billing errors, redundant charges and delayed payments. In one example cited, an agency dedicated dozens of personnel solely to processing utility invoices — illustrating how administrative burden can grow without delivering operational value.
Parente said the lack of a centralized view prevents agencies from identifying inefficiencies such as inactive services, incorrect billing and abnormal consumption patterns. When one agency modernized its approach, it captured $8 million in savings over two years.
Why Does Utility Management Require Digital Modernization?
Parente emphasized that utility management must evolve from a transactional process into a data-driven function to meet both cost-efficiency and sustainability objectives.
Without centralized data and automation, agencies face challenges in meeting federal mandates tied to energy conservation and environmental performance. He noted that modernization does not require a complete overhaul of government operations but instead a shift toward integrating proven technologies that improve visibility and control. Establishing a single source of truth for utility data is foundational to this approach.
How Do Digital Platforms Support a Modern Approach?
The executive pointed to centralized, automated platforms as a practical path forward for improving utility management outcomes. MetTel’s Utilities Expense Management platform, for instance, aggregates utility accounts into a unified system that provides real-time visibility into spending and usage. The platform automates invoice processing and uses artificial intelligence to identify anomalies, such as billing discrepancies and unexpected consumption spikes. According to MetTel, the system flags issues in roughly one-third of managed accounts each month.
“By embracing this digital transformation, federal agencies can finally get a handle on one of their largest and most complex operational expenses,” said Parente.
